The present invention relates to an article transport assembly for the conveyance of articles such as printed products, and which includes a guide rail supporting a plurality of transport devices which are individually movable along the guide rail and which in turn support the printed products.
The patent specification CH-A-382,768 discloses a transport system for printing products, which comprises a plurality of individually movable article transport devices, designed as carriages, which are mounted on an endless guide rail. Arranged on each article transport device is a gripper which can be actuated via a control and in each case grasps a printing product at a feed station, transports it and releases it again at a delivery point. The empty article transport devices are supplied again, along the guide rail, to the feed station, where they grasp a new printing product. These known devices are of relatively large and heavy design, the disadvantage of this being that the printing products can only be conveyed at low speed, and that they are at a relatively large distance from one another in the conveying stream, thus limiting the conveying capacity of the transport system.
It is an object of the present invention to provide an article of transport assembly of the described type which overcomes the above noted deficiencies of the prior systems.